The boys and I are back from Arkansas — we had such a great time. One of the highlights on our trip was testing our nerve and strength of will in the canopy of the Ozark forests — a high-wire adventure in the trees at Loco Ropes.
There are three courses (you can do just Line 1, or sign up for all 3). Each course has around 10 rope challenges, all different, but every one of them 3-6 stories off the ground. You might have to balance and walk on a tight-rope, step carefully along swinging logs, traverse wobbly rope bridges, or maneuver in, out, over, or through ropes placed in such a way to test your bravery or flexibility. The biggest test of will for me was a leap-of-faith drop from a high platform, with the cable zip not engaging until you’ve fallen a few feet. I think I sat there for 2-3 minutes trying to silence my brain into nothingness in order to get my body to sneak off the platform before my brain stopped me again.
My sons had a blast, completing all three courses with ease. I did Lines 1 and 2 and was perfectly content to skip out on the third — hey, I’d already proven myself! (The picture above I took while up in the trees doing Line 1 — the others are of the boys doing Line 3).
Was it Loco? Yes! But absolutely fun, challenging, scary, rewarding, and memorable, too. The boys are eager to go back, and so we will one day.
Yes Loco indeed. I have done it and those few moments before you jump off the platform. I asked them to push me but they would not. That is huge. Done it, don’t need to do it again. Yes it was fun, but again, don’t need to do that again….
Great pics. Looks like you all had a great time!
Gosh, you are brave! I have terrible balance, so those parts wouldn’t work for me. But I’d love to try a zip line sometime. Makes me a little weak in the knees, though, thinking about it.
I imagine you getting half way across and having a really cool dragonfly, butterfly, or bird land on the rope in front of you, and you trying to figure out how to get out the camera and frame the shot. 🙂
Looks like fun… maybe.
Hi Meredith, i haven’t been back for a while here. Those escapades are so exciting, i wonder if someone would slip with that rope!
I bet those boys had a blast. Did Hubby go too?
The kids are brave to take that challenging activity.
How fun! Reminds me of my high school days in the Girl Scouts. We were one of 5 Girl Scout troops that joined the 100+ Boy Scout troops for a weekend at West Point Academy in upstate NY. The Cadets came up with a series of wilderness challenges for us to complete and earn points. Their rope challenges were not quite this elaborate, thankfully.
Of course, one compass challenge was not going well for us, so the Cadets convinced us that if we got down on one knee in mud a foot deep and sang “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” we’d probably receive our points anyway. We belted it out, but sounded no better than “Maverick” in Top Gun.
I hope I can find a Loco Ropes equivalent locally. Looks like a lot of fun.
Hi Meredith–
It was a pleasure getting to meet you at the LBJ Wildflower Center last Thurs–I’ve been enjoying your blog and you wonderful photographs for some time, so it was very nice to meet the person behind the camera!
Cheers–
Melanie
Melanie, it was great to meet you, Keith, and Spider Joe, too — such a treat. I’m still playing catch-up on all my photos and obviously my blog, but I’m determined to get back on track. Tell Spider Joe I’m actively hunting for crab spiders!